Styling in Yogya

As many of you may know, Kacie is a highly talented hair artiste... Something Lucy and I have quickly embraced as we try to look beautiful and photo-ready in 90-degree, humid Yogyakarta!

Kacie creates magic after our surprising breakfast of butter toast and Nutella!

Kacie's handiwork

We Take Picture With You?

After exploring the Buddhist monument of Borobudor, we made our way to Parangtritis Beach. Following the long car drive, we asked if there were any public bathrooms. We were directed to a long row of small rooms with nothing in them but a wash basin and a slanted concrete floor with a very small drainage hole in the corner. It was a first for all, and copious amounts of Purell were subsequently used.

We made our way out onto the black sand beach (in the rain), and were all pleasantly surprised by how warm the water was! Nicole and I both went a little crazy with the picture taking, but sadly, none of those are able to be uploaded here from our phones. 

We learned earlier in the day that locals (especially children and young adults) LOVE taking pictures with us. On the beach, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a school trip of children, and when we agreed to be in pictures with them, they all cheered! Once the children were done fighting over who got to stand next to us, the group of adults next to them joined in! They had two little baby girls, so all of us were thrilled! 

Parangtritis Beach is known for its horse-drawn carriage rides on the beach, and you know that nothing can make Stacen happier than the ocean and animals. He and and Nicole took a short jaunt down the beach, and came back beaming with joy. Check that off the list!

After a few more pictures, it was time to return home to Jogja, and our driver was wonderful and joked with us the whole way. A short lunch at ViaVia later (attached shrimp heads were involved; neither Stacen nor I were amused), and it was time to book our WEEK LONG stay in Karimunjawa next week! According to the locals, we could not have picked a better paradise to vacation in!

We also decided to indulge ourselves and get massages! Each of the girls got a back and neck for 40,000 rupiah (about $4) and Stacen decided to splurge on a traditional Javanese deep tissue massage for 70,000 rupiah (about $7 dollars. We left feeling very relaxed and well-oiled, and are now chilling and deciding what to do for dinner. Apologies for the lack of pictures this post, but until next time!

Daybreak at Borobudur

We've decided that the best thing to do in a country where none of us speak the language is to embrace the tourist lifestyle: tours.  Our street is lined with guesthouses, hotels and tour agencies, so we did some comparison shopping.  Last night, we picked a group and arranged a tour of a gigantic Buddhist temple and a beachside town.

We woke at the first call to prayer, at 4:30.  There must be dozens of tiny mosques in the neighborhood.  Each has its own imam who leads the calls five times daily.  Our driver from the agency picked us up at 5, and we drove the hour to the massive Buddhist monument of Borobudur.  Here are a few snaps from our morning:

Nicole looks at the monument.

One of the thousands of relief panels on the temple walls.

The Buddha overlooks the morning mists.  

Singapore: Big Brother is watching

20 hours of flying time later (and after flying directly over the north pole!) we made it to Singapore, an oasis of first world perfection, where everything is clean, and there was never any chewing gum under the tables (I checked). Heat index is over 100 every day of the year here, and there is a thunderstorm almost every evening around 6. Everywhere you look is a beautifully manicured lawn and gardens with brightly-colored condos rising up out if each one. Population is 5 million, and it is dense just like manhattan. It is a very multicultural city, with the predominant populations being Chinese, Malay, and southern India. Everybody speaks English to some degree here (a lasting vestige of British imperialism). It has been an amazing warm-up to south-east Asia!

Day 1: We began our exploration by having the craziest multicultural day ever. Our hostel (cutely named "Beary Best") was in Chinatown...so we started with Chinatown, wandering the streets, getting our bearing, and just taking it all in. Unsurprisingly, it is the most authentic Chinatown we have ever seen (light years beyond NYC). We topped it off with some quick visits to a Hindu temple built in the 1820s and then a Buddhist temple built 4 years ago (both very mesmerizing). We met up with Lucy's friend Nick who has lived here for a few months, and he became our impromptu tour guide. We discovered that the metro is GORGEOUS and clean, and took it up to Little India, where we ate a traditional lunch served up on a banana leaf! We then headed to Arab street, where wonderful whiffs of hooks descended upon us from all directions. We toured a mosque and got a quick lesson in the foundations of Islam by a very nice man, who quite obviously had made it his personal goal to convince us that he was not a "Jesus hater", and show us how similar the two religions actually are. 

We then headed to the Gardens by the Bay, a brand new complex that is part of a huge waterfront redevelopment project. It was beautiful! They had these fake trees that glowed purple at night that you could go up and walk on the "canopy". Kacie saw her first banana trees. That night we took a bus over to a huge outdoor food market near the beach where we were so tired we really didn't have any appetite at all, but it was still a really cool cultural experience. VERY TIRED THAT NIGHT.

Day 2: Today was nature day! We spent 6 hours touring the 175 year old 128 acre botanic gardens. Kacie took about 500 pictures! It was one of the coolest places we've ever been. Highlights...trail they the untouched rainforest, Lilly pads almost 3 feet in diameter, learning that bananas are a ginger, the largest orchid collection in the world, other marvels. That night we went to some dinner and headed back to the hostel, exhausted once again.

Day 3: So Singaporeans LOVE malls and shopping. Coincidently, everyone is very well-dressed...and there are a lot of malls. In fact, it is my belief that there is only 1 giant, inter-connected (air-conditioned) mall on the entire island. We explored orchard road, which looks like Times Square...but just malls. We did lots of people watching and at times felt very poor. After an amazing lunch in a local food court (part of Nicole's food was literally on fire when it was served to her), we enjoyed high tea in the Marriott (which was a giant pagoda!). The evening's festivities involved the infamous Singapore Night Safari and then a very late dinner. We had a great time seeing some pretty cool looking animals that haven't made it to our zoos in the states.  

Day 4: We packed up and said goodbye to our Beary best hostel, and made for Changi Airport (ps: rated the BEST airport in the world!). We landed in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (on the island of Java--at 200 mil it is the most populated island in the world) and it was quite...different...than Singapore. A great warm up to Asia, we are now in a land where only the numbers and letters are familiar. We are striving to learn as much Indonesian as possible. I have decided to focus on numbers, but as a result, I keep forgetting "hello" and "thank you". We spent the day relaxing first at an expat restaurant, then at "afternoon tea" on our porch! We have an amazing little hotel in the center of town, with very nice staff. We are right next to a mosque, and so 6 times a day are treated to the mesmerizing calls of the imam. So far, having an amazing time! (And the prices are awesome...we each took out 1 million rupiah at the ATM when we got here...$100...and man does it go a long way!)

Until next time...

Cheerful Filipino barista brewing us up some scrumptious traditional Singaporean coffee

A Present from our Hosts

We're staying at a guesthouse in Yogya, and the great Indonesian men who make us breakfast and give us afternoon tea sometimes leave us little presents.  We found these this afternoon after a jaunt to the Sultan's palace:

Selamat sore from Yogyakarta!

Selamat sore is good afternoon.  Afternoon in Indonesia starts just after the hottest part of the day and ends when the sun goes down - no evening here.  

We've arrived after a jaunty AirAsia flight and are taking a breather before heading out to explore Indonesia's cultural capital, Yogyakarta.  

Kacie in front of the guesthouse's greenery.  

Singapore in a Snap

Our whirlwind tour of Singapore started Sunday morning and hasn't let up until our departure for Indonesia this morning (Wednesday).  We've seen the strangest things in the world - Supertrees, the Marina Bay Sands towers, egg jam, and a consistently clean and delightful transit system.

We owe a debt of thanks to our impromptu tour guide, Nick, one of my friends from CT who moved to Singapore a few months ago.  Nick took us on a speedy tour of the city and kept us fed and watered, to boot.

Below are a few tidbits from our trip so far.

The view from our hostel towards Singapore's Financial Center.

The Supertrees at the Gardens by the Bay.

Happy travelers with fruit juices.

Nick and me Tuesday night as we are trying to keep the bus driver (out if the frame) from leaving.

Stacen endorses the New York import.

Kacie and Nicole model modest clothing in the mosque.

A street lantern near our hostel in Chinatown.  

More to come! We are heading to Yogyakarta next.